Roller assembly

ABSTRACT

A roller assembly having a pair of frames pivotally joined together and a plurality of rollers mounted therein. A pair of roller supports are secured to each frame in such a manner as to permit individual rollers to be removed from the assembly without interrupting the operation of any remaining rollers.

United States Patent 1 1 I Collins [11] 3,724,629 1 Apr. 3, 1973 [54]ROLLER ASSEMBLY [76] Inventor: William Collins, 1490 l jillinghamBoulevard, Apt. No. 215, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 [22] Filed: Nov. 16,1971

21 Appl. No.: 199,100

3,340,618 9/1967 Bentzman ..34/1 62 2,827,153 3/1958 Olk et al...198/127 R 3,345,928 10/1967 Krehbiel ..34/162 UX 1,406,228 2/1922Riedel ..193/35 R 2,391,272 12/1945 Rose ..l93/35 R 3,528,488 9/1970Bode ..193/35 R X 3,495,651 2/1970 Rokop et al.

Primary Examiner-Richard E. Aegerter 521 US. Cl ..193/35 R, 118/116,226/176, Assistant Scott Carson 22 199 193 1 7 Attorney-Harry A.Herbert, Jr. et al. [51] Int. (:1 ..B65'g 13/11 581 Field 61 Search..34/151, 162, 155; ABSTRACT gig'g; i::% i 1 A roller assembly having apair of frames pivotally I 1 1 1 joined together and a plurality ofrollers mounted 1 I therein. A pair of roller supports are secured toeach References C" d frame in such a manner as to permit individualrollers 1 e to be removed from the assembly without interrupting UNITEDSTATES PATENTS the operation of any remaining rollers. 3,308,555 3/1967Kruger ..34/155 6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures I 8 I O PATENTEDAPRB I9753.724.629

o INVENTOR \mLLmM COLLINS 1 ROLLER ASSEMBLY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates generally to roller assemblies, and moreparticularly to a roller conveyor in which the individual rollers may beeasily removed during machine operation.

Roller conveyors have been found to be a swift and economical manner oftransporting articles or materials. In particular, roller conveyors havebeen'extremely essential in todays copying industries. For example, theroller is a common component of a copying machine in feeding copy paperthrough the drier. However, a major problem heretofore encountered isthe machines which transport material by means of rollers that theroller assembly is not the cause of the formation of such jams, andequally important should a jam occur, the assembly must incorporatereadily accessible construction features that enable even an unskilledoperator to easily get to the source of the trouble and to quickly takethe necessary remedial action.

Roller conveyors are generally constructed with a frame which includes apairof spaced parallel side rails, usually of channel section, betweenwhich the rollers are supported. In the usual case, the roller includesan axle which projects beyond opposite ends of the roller and isrotatably mounted within the roller by suitable bearings. The projectedends of the axle are conventionally supported within openings orbrackets located on the respective side rails. These conveyors may beeither power driven as by a driven belt engaging the under surface ofthe rollers, or may be in the form of gravity conveyors in which therollers merely define a substantially frictionless surface upon whicharticles are conveyed by gravity.

l-Ieretofore, these conveyors were designed with the principal purposeof conveying material therethrough with little regard given to theconstruction which enabled quick disassembly of the conveyor in case ofjamming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The roller assembly of the instant inventionovercomes the problems set forth hereinabove.

In the instant invention, the roller assembly is made up of a pluralityof rollers aligned parallel to each other through which atreatedmaterial (such as paper or cloth) passes. The function of theroller combination of this invention is to absorb and/or spread theexcess liquid or fluid remaining on the treated material so that it maydryrapidly in final stages of machine operation and to aid in thetransporting of the treated material from one area of a machine to theother.

The roller assembly of this invention is further made up of a hingedarrangement which supports these rollers and a novel design whichenables the rollers to be easily removedwithout interruption of thetransporting operation of the machine. Therefore, any malfunction duringoperation can be easily corrected and all checks be made. For example,when foreign matter or mechanical defects are noted, the technician can,

remove a roller, affect the necessary repair without impairing thecontinued operation of the machine, thereby preventing waste of thematerials. and man hours.

. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a rollerassembly which requires less maintenance in operation than the apparatuspresently in use.

It is a further object of this invention to. provide a roller assemblywhich allows individual rollers to be removed from the assembly whilethe machine is still in operation.

It is another object of this invention to provide a roller assemblywhich is economical to produce, highly reliable in operation and whichutilizes conventional currently available components that lendthemselves to standard mass producing manufacturing techniques.

For a better understanding of the present invention together with otherand further objects thereof, reference is made to the followingdescription taken in. connection with the accompanying drawing and itsscope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a plan view of the roller assemblyof this invention, shown partly in cross-section;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference is now madeto FIGS. 1 and 2of the drawing which best show the roller assembly 10 ofthis invention. The instant roller assembly 10 may be used alone as ameans of transporting articles or material from one location to another,but finds its greatest utility in conjunction with other equipment, suchas a copy machine (not shown), by feeding paper therethrough.Furthermore, roller assembly 10 may be in the form of a gravity conveyoras shown in the drawing or be power driven (not shown) by anyconventional powersource without altering the inventive concept setforth hereinbelow.

The roller assembly 10 is made up of a pair of frames 12 and 14 whichremovably secure therein a plurality of rollers 18. Frames 12 and 14-arepivotally mounted together at one end by any suitable securing'means,

. such as hinge 16 (shown in FIGS. 4 and 5). The frames 12 and 14 areshown in a rectangular configuration but may take on any formnecessitated by its use. Rollers 18 are rotatably mounted on axles 22which have their respective ends mounted in any suitable bearing member24. The rollers 18 may be made of any suitable material which is capableof absorbing and/or spreading excess liquid during the transportation ofmaterial therethrough.

Forming an essential part of the roller assembly of this invention arethe roller supports 26 and 28 (best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) andexplained in detail hereinbelow. Roller supports 26 and 28 allow for theeasy removal of rollers 18 from the assembly 10 even during thetransportation operation. Heretofore, a repair technician would have tostop the machine associated with roller assembly 10 when the assembly issuspected to be malfunctioning. Materials that have been partiallyprocessed and chemicals used in the processing as well as many man hourswould be lost. The design of roller supports 26 and 28 circumvent thisproblem allowing the rapid removal of any roller 18 at any time duringoperation.

A pair of roller supports 26 are secured by any suitable means to theinner rear portion of frames 12 and 14, respectively, adjacent hinge 16.Supports 26 are formed of either a single piece of material or aplurality segments which allow for the formation of recessed portions 30facing the interior of assembly 10. Bearing members 24 which support oneend of each of the rollers 1 8, respectively, are located withinrecesses 30.

Adjacent each recessed portion 30 is astepped segment 31 'and'anupstanding element 32 shaped to fit within an opposed stepped segment31. Each such roller support 26 is mounted on a respective frame 12 and14 in a position offset with respect to the other so that when frames 12and 14 are in the closed or operative' position as shown in FIG. 2 theoutstanding elements 32 fit within an opposite stepped segment 31thereby securely holding bearing members 24 in recess 30.

Another pair of roller supports 28 are mounted on the inner frontportion of supports 12 and 14, respectively, as shown in FIG. 3. Thesesupports 28 have a plurality of recessed portions 34 therein alignedwith recessed portions 30 of supports 26. Bearing members 24 of theother end of rollers 18 are located within the recessed portions 34 ofroller supports 28. Furthermore, recessed portions 34 face the exteriorof frames 12 and 14 so as to allow for the easy withdrawal of rollers 18when desired. A latch 36 is pivotally mounted adjacent each recessedportion 34 for removably securing the bearing members 24 of rollers 18therein.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, rollers 18 are free to rotate on axles 22within frames 12 and 14, secured at one end by the interlockingarrangement of roller supports 26 and at the other end by latch 36 ofroller supports 28.

During operation of a machine utilized with the roller assembly of thisinvention, it is possible to remove any roller 18 by merely unlockingthe desired latch 36 and pulling the appropriate roller 18 from recessedportions 30 and 34 in supports 26 and 28, respectively. The roller 18may be reinstalled by the reversed procedure of inserting the bearingmember 24 at one end of roller 18 within recess 30 of support 26,thereafter inserting the bearing member 24 at the other end of roller 18in recess 34 of support 28 and relocking latch 30. This procedureeliminates the opening of frames 12 and 14 of assembly 10 of the instantinvention and/or stopping the operation of the machine associatedtherewith.

For quick removal of rollers 18 after completion of machine operation,for example, all that is required is the separation of frames 12 and 14.This operation disengages outstanding elements 32 from stepped segments31 in supports 26, thereby allowing the rollers 18 to be withdrawn fromrecessed portions 30 without the unlocking of individual latches 36.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a particularembodiment, it will be understood to those skilled in the art that thisinvention is also capable of a variety of alternate embodiments withinthe spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Iclaimi 1. A roller assembly comprising a pair of'frames, a hingepivotally mounting said frames together, a plurality of rollersrotatably mounted within each of said frames, a first pair of rollersupports secured to one end of each of said frames, each of said firstpair of roller supports having a plurality of recessed portions therein,a stepped segment and an upstanding elementadjacent thereto, one end ofeach of said rollers being supported in each of said recessed portions,whereby when said roller assembly is in the closed position each of saidupstanding elements on one of said first pair of roller supports fitswithin an opposed stepped segment on the other of said first pair ofroller supports thereby holding porting one end of each of said rollerstherebetween.

3. A roller assembly as defined in claim 2 wherein said second pair ofroller supports have a plurality of recessed portions therein forsupporting the other end of said rollers and a latch means locatedadjacent each of said recessed portions for removably. locking saidrollers in place.

4. A roller assembly as defined in claim 3 wherein said first pair ofroller supports have their recessed portions facing the interior of saidframes.

5. A roller assembly as defined in elaim4 wherein said second pair ofroller supports have their recessed portions facing the exterior of saidframes.

6. A roller assembly asdefined in claim 5 wherein each of said rollersare rotatably mounted on an axle, said axle having a bearing member ateach end thereof, said bearing members fitting into said recessedportions of said first and second roller supports.

1. A roller assembly comprising a pair of frames, a hinge pivotallymounting said frames together, a plurality of rollers rotatably mountedwithin each of said frames, a first pair of roller supports secured toone end of each of said frames, each of said first pair of rollersupports having a plurality of recessed portions therein, a steppedsegment and an upstanding element adjacent thereto, one end of each ofsaid rollers being supported in each of said recessed portions, wherebywhen said roller assembly is in the closed position each of saidupstanding elements on one of said first pair of roller supports fitswithin an opposed stepped segment on the other of said first pair ofroller supports thereby holding said rollers in place, and a second pairof roller supports secured to the other end of each of said Frames forremovably securing the other end of said rollers within said frameswhereby any roller may be removed from said roller assembly withoutinterrupting the operation of the other rollers.
 2. A roller assembly asdefined in claim 1 wherein each of said first pair of roller supportsare identical in design and are mounted on said respective frames in anoffset position with respect to one another thereby supporting one endof each of said rollers therebetween.
 3. A roller assembly as defined inclaim 2 wherein said second pair of roller supports have a plurality ofrecessed portions therein for supporting the other end of said rollersand a latch means located adjacent each of said recessed portions forremovably locking said rollers in place.
 4. A roller assembly as definedin claim 3 wherein said first pair of roller supports have theirrecessed portions facing the interior of said frames.
 5. A rollerassembly as defined in claim 4 wherein said second pair of rollersupports have their recessed portions facing the exterior of saidframes.
 6. A roller assembly as defined in claim 5 wherein each of saidrollers are rotatably mounted on an axle, said axle having a bearingmember at each end thereof, said bearing members fitting into saidrecessed portions of said first and second roller supports.